Beglar D., Murray N. Inside Track to Writing Dissertations and Theses
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4 Clear and effective writing
136
Chapter or article in
edited book
Bell, M. (1998) ‘The journalism of attachment’, in
K. Matthew (ed) Media Ethics. London: Routledge.
A book that is not a first
edition
Holden, J. (ed.) (2008) An introduction to physical geography
and the environment. 2nd edn. Harlow: Pearson.
Undated book
Klinger, H. (nd). Life from the front. Unpublished Army
Records.
or
Klinger, H. (undated). Life from the front. Unpublished Army
Records.
Different books by the
same author in the
same year
Mackey, H. (1988a) The rise and fall of the tiger economies.
New York: Longman.
Mackey, H. (1988b) The bubble breaks. New York: McGraw-Hill.
E-book
Moore, T. and Kirby, W. (2002) China in the world market.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available from:
http://allbooks.tuj/departments/library/ebooks/default.asp
[e-book accessed 9.4.08].
Reference books
The Oxford English Dictionary. (1989) 2nd edn. Oxford:
Clarendon.
Journal article
Reder, L. (1979) ‘The role of elaborations in memory for
prose’, Cognitive Psychology 11: 221–34.
Online journal article
Wilson, K. ‘Facilitator talk in EAP reading classes’. ELT
Journal 62: 4, pp. 331–338 [online]. Available from: http://eltj.
oxfordjournals.org. [Accessed 23 January 2009.]
Conference
proceeding
Rear, D. (2007) ‘A new kind of graduate? Discourses on criti-
cal thinking’, in Challenging assumptions: looking in, looking
out: Proceedings of the 33rd JALT international conference on
language teaching and learning & educational materials exhi-
bition, (eds) Bradford-Watts, K., Muller, T. and Swanson,
M., Tokyo, pp. 34–42.
Conference paper
Beretta,A. and Gass,S. (1991) ‘Indeterminacy and the reliabil-
ity of grammaticality judgements’.Paper presented at Second
Language Research Forum,University of Southern California.
Newspaper – print
Markee, S. (2006) ‘University lecturers complain of having
to dumb down’. The Times 17 June, p. 14.
Newspaper – online
Timesonline (2008) ‘Can technology spin loose from the
downwardspiral?’ http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/
news/tech_and_web/the_web/article5081652.ece
[6 Nov. 2008].
Internet website
Pearce, F. (1993) When the tide comes in . . . New Scientist.
Available from: http://www.newscientist.com/article/
mg13718543.800-when-the-tide-comes-in – britains-
coastline-stretches4000-kilometres-and-much-of-
its-crumbling-away-what-should-be-done-strengthen-
barricades-against-the-sea-or-stage-a-managed-
retreat.html [6 January 2009].
Environment Agency. n.d. Diffuse water pollution. Available
from: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/
waterquality/1725838/?version=1&lang=_e [20 December
2008].
Book – organisation
as author
National Geographic Society (1982) Journey into China.
Washington: National Geographic Society.
Source Bibliographic entry
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The correct style for UK dates is, for example, 12 September 2009 (day/
month/year). The US style is, for example, September 12, 2009 (month/day/year).
Confusion can sometimes arise when you see, for example, 07/11/88. Is this
7 November or 11 July? So it’s best to avoid this date version and use the full one
wherever possible.
137
The mechanics of academic writing
TIP
Software packages
The introduction of bibliographic management software packages in recent years
has made the process of creating a bibliography far easier that it used to be, pro-
vided, of course, that you are prepared to invest a small amount of time in learning
how to use such packages. It is certainly worthwhile doing so as your facility with
this software can then be used with any subsequent publications you may pro-
duce and save you considerable time. Popular packages currently available include
Endnote (www.endnote.com), Reference Manager (www.refman.com), ProCite
(www.procite.com) and Ref Works (refworks.com). These packages allow you to
create your own database in which you can store and organise references, and from
which you can format bibliographies. They are integrated fully with word-processing
packages such as Microsoft Word and WordPerfect. Consequently, you can insert
references into your text (sometimes called Cite While You Write, or CWYW) and
build bibliographies as you are writing. These programs also generate the bibliog-
raphy in the correct style or format for publication.
Look at the (unformatted) list of references below. Use them to create a correctly
formatted and sequenced bibliography.
Title: Meaning in Interaction
Author: Jenny Thomas
Date: 1995
Publisher: Longman (Harlow)
Title: Media Ethics
Editor: Matthew Kieran
Date: 1998
Publisher: Routledge (London)
Title: Translation as interpretation
Author: Axel Bühler
Source Title: Translation Studies
Volume Editor: Alessandra Riccardi
Date: 2002
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge)
Activity 4.14 Formatting sources for inclusion in a bibliography
➨
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4 Clear and effective writing
138
Title: Escape from the impact factor
Author: Philip Campbell
Journal: ethics in science and environmental politics Vol 8, pages 5–7
Date: 2008
Title: Tristes Tropiques
Author: Claude Lévi-Strauss
Date: 1984
Publisher: Atheneum (New York)
Title: Outsider dealing
Author: Peter Hetherington
Date: 24 January 2007; accessed 5 February 2009
Publisher: Guardian Online
Webpage: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/jan/24/
immigrationasylumandrefugees.asylum
Title: The Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education,
Children’s Services and Skills 2007/08
Author: Ofsted
Date: 2008
Publisher: Ofsted (London)
Title: Educational issues in war and peace: some reflections
Author: Linda Peachey
Date: 2005
Source: IATEFL 2005 Cardiff Conference Selections from the 39th Inter-
national Annual Conference Cardiff, 5–9 April 2005
Editor: Briony Beaven
Publisher: IATEFL
Title: Interpersonal Skills in Organisations
Authors: Suzanne De Janasz, Glenice Wood, Lorene Gottschalk, Karen Dowd,
Beth Schneider
Date: 2006
Publisher: McGraw-Hill (Sydney)
Title: Liberalisation and the debates on women’s access to land
Author: Shahra Razavi
Date: 2007
Journal: Third World Quarterly (online)
Publisher: Routledge
Electronic
database source: Informaworld
Website: http://informaworld.com/smpp/
content~content=a783868903~db=all~order=page
Access date: 18 July 2007
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139
The mechanics of academic writing
Acknowledgements
The acknowledgements section of your dissertation comes after the abstract
(
➨
see Chapter 5, p. 143). It is where you have the opportunity to thank all those
institutions and individuals who have contributed to your research in some way.
Typically, a researcher will wish to extend their thanks to their department and
supervisor, any other external advisors, colleagues and family who offered advice
and support, subjects who volunteered to participate in any empirical studies,
surveys etc., and organisations who made facilities, materials and personnel avail-
able to them for the purposes of their research.
Below are two examples of an acknowledgement page, the first from a dissertation
and the second from a thesis:
Example 1
I should express my gratitude to those various people and institutions that
have contributed to this project in one way or another. First, the subjects who
willingly agreed to take part and give their time to observing and discussing the
interviews. I thank both UCLES (University of Cambridge Local Examinations
Syndicate) for providing the video recordings upon which those observations
and discussions were based, as well as the staff and students of the Research
Centre for English and Applied Linguistics for their input. Finally, I am espe-
cially indebted to Alastair Pollitt, my supervisor, whose constant guidance and
insight were invaluable and always stimulating.
(Author’s own work)
Example 2
I offer my deep, sincere and painfully inadequate thanks to my supervisor and
mentor, Assoc. Professor Reg Cahill, for his inspiration, guidance, enthusiasm,
and almost infinite patience (or so it seemed, since he rarely indicated other-
wise). I will be forever influenced by his incisive wit, tenacity, and clarity of
thought and I count myself most fortunate to have been afforded both his
instruction and his friendship.
Heartfelt thanks, too, to my friend and colleague, Dr Susan Gunner, for her
indispensable optimism, challenging discussions, pragmatic advice, and per-
petual good humour.
Dr Salah Kutieleh and Dr Peter Zeegers also deserve my gratitude. As col-
leagues and friends, their tolerance and moral support have played no small
part in this endeavour. Similarly, Dr Timothy Moss’s counsel and calming influ-
ence cannot go unrecognised – thanks for helping me across the finish line,
Tim: live long and prosper!
Finally, very special thanks go to my family, whose forbearance and encour-
agement never faltered. In particular, my bride, Sheila, enduring more than she
could have possibly anticipated yet not once wavering in her approbation, and
my brother, Paul, without whose dogged goading this might still be a work-in-
progress. Thank you one. Thank you all.
(Klinger, 2005: xii)
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4 Clear and effective writing
140
Table of contents
Before submitting your dissertation or thesis, be sure to include a comprehensive table
of contents after the acknowledgements page. The table of contents should show, at a
glance, the structure of the work, listing the various sections and sub-sections along
with their decimal numbers (
➨
see p. 128). Be sure to include the page numbers that
correspond to each of the sections and sub-sections, and a list of figures, abbreviations
and appendices. A sample contents list is shown in the Appendix at the end of this book.
Acronyms and abbreviations
As you conduct your research, you will inevitably draw on numerous different
sources of verbal and written information many of which you will want to make ref-
erence to in your dissertation/thesis. In some cases, such references will be frequent
and the use of abbreviations is, therefore, a way of making this process less tedious,
not just for yourself but also for your reader. For example, it can become laborious
to have to repeatedly write out the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, so instead people commonly refer to it as UNESCO. Although
most people know UNESCO, you may well be using acronyms such as this that are
only known by those involved in the particular area to which they relate; as such,
you will need to spell out the acronym the first time you mention it. An acronym is
one kind of abbreviation that uses the first letter of the main words that make up a
name: WWF (World Wildlife Fund) is another acronym. You may also wish to use
other abbreviated forms that you yourself have created and which are not acronyms.
This is acceptable provided you do not overuse them and that you ‘spell them out’
in full the first time you use them, including the abbreviation in parentheses. Alterna-
tively, you may wish to write ‘. . . hereafter referred to as X’. Furthermore, try to limit
their application to the names of institutions or organisations.
Include a list of all acronyms and abbreviations on a separate page after your table
of contents, along with the full forms to which they refer. The reader can then refer to
this key with ease and at any time while reading your work.
Appendices
‘Appendices’ refers to documents and other supplementary material that is included
at the end of your dissertation or thesis. Usually, material included in the appendices is
too lengthy to include in the main body of the text where it would break up the flow of
the text and act as a distraction. Material typically dealt with in this way includes sur-
vey instruments such as questionnaires, reports or extracts of reports, government
and other official papers, lengthy tables or transcriptions, and newspaper articles.
Readers are invited to refer to the appendices at the appropriate junctures in the text.
Appendices are normally placed in an order reflecting that in which they are men-
tioned in the main body of the dissertation/thesis. The are identified using a system
of lettering (Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C . . .) or numbering (Appendix 1,
Appendix 2, Appendix 3 . . .).
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This chapter looks at the various parts of a study, each of which serves a unique
and important function. The primary thought that should guide the presentation
of your work is clarity; how can you present your study so that readers can
easily follow your logic and appreciate the results of your work? This chapter
will let you know about one way that is very commonly used, but you should
treat this approach flexibly, as every study is unique and the best way to present
yours may be somewhat different.
The chapter will cover:
■ the abstract including keyword searches
■ the introduction
■ the literature review
■ methodology
■ the results
■ the discussion
■ the conclusion.
THE RESEARCH PROJECT
5
The abstract 143
5.1 Analysing an abstract 144
5.2 Write keywords for several
articles in your field 146
The introduction 146
5.3 Analyse the location and wording
of purpose statements 153
The literature review 158
5.4 Examine the theoretical
perspective of a study 155
Methodology 169
5.5 Thinking of how various audiences
will benefit from your study 156
The results 176
The discussion 178
5.6 To whom can you generalise
your results? 157
The conclusion 182
5.7 Practise summarising a study 161
5.8 Examine the characteristics of
the study participants 170
5.9 Analyse the description of an
instrument used in a study 173
5.10 Analyse the procedures
described in a study 174
If you want to dip into this section Page If you want to try the activities Page
USING THIS CHAPTER
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5 The research project
142
INTRODUCTION
The primary purpose of writing a dissertation is to learn more about a particular
topic. Although your work must be original, it’s not possible to specify exactly what
that means, as everyone’s work relies tremendously on previous research and the
ideas of other writers. However, you can demonstrate your originality in a number
of ways. First, you can show originality in your understanding of past literature.
Here you can show previously unidentified gaps and/or inconsistencies in the liter-
ature, or conversely, you might identify patterns that had not been mentioned by
previous writers as you carefully synthesise the ideas or results of previous stud-
ies. In both of these cases, the key is to apply independent, critical thinking when
reading previous literature. In this case, critical thinking involves analysing an issue
by looking at it from various angles, judging the evidence that has been presented
by previous writers with a degree of scepticism, and examining the appropriate-
ness of the inferences and conclusions that they make. Because no researcher can
provide more than a part of the ‘truth’, and the history of science shows that we
often understand an issue partially or incorrectly, adopting a questioning attitude
is prudent.
A second way that you can demonstrate your understanding of an area is through
your conceptualisation of the problem that you study. This might involve using a pre-
viously untried theoretical approach to investigate the problem. You might also bring
in a concept or theory from another academic field. This strategy has been used
successfully a great many times in some branches of the social sciences, such as in
the field of education. You might also synthesise ideas from two or more writers to
create a new idea that has not been explored previously.
A third way that you can show your originality is by adopting a new approach to
the problem you are investigating. You might do this in your research design or
your choice of analytical tools. For instance, some areas are primarily studied
using cross-sectional experimental designs in which data are only collected at
one point in time. The use of a longitudinal design in which you collect data over
a period of several weeks or months would probably provide new and interesting
information about the phenomenon. Alternatively, in areas in which either a quan-
titative or qualitative approach has been used predominantly, you could take ‘the
road less travelled’.
Ultimately, you can show convincingly the value of your study and the originality of
your work by providing new findings about the issue that you are investigating; no
one will argue that your study is not sufficiently original if you have results that
make a real contribution to your field of study. An additional – and very important
part of your efforts to produce an original piece of work – is to develop a distinctive
and personalised view of the field and the issues you are studying. In other
words, as noted previously, you need to develop a sense of ownership over the
knowledge that you are developing.
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143
The abstract
THE ABSTRACT
The abstract is an extremely important part of your dissertation or thesis, because
along with the title, the abstract is the first and sometimes the only contact that many
readers will have with your work, so write it carefully. When you write the abstract,
you should keep two objectives in mind. First, you want to provide enough informa-
tion to inform readers about whether the study is pertinent to them. Readers need to
make an informed decision about whether they would like to read your entire study,
and the abstract is the main way that they will make that decision. Secondly, you
want to summarise the most important points of your study and to provide informa-
tion regarding how your study adds to our understanding of the problem.
A common approach to writing the abstract is to view it as a ‘miniature paper’ in
which you open with a brief general statement that sets the scene, informs readers
of the purpose(s) of your study, describes your participants and, if necessary, your
methodology, and then describes your results and perhaps your interpretation of
those results. As noted above, it’s a good idea to state the unique contribution that
your study makes to the field of study in general.
Other issues to keep in mind are that only results or information found in the body of
your paper should be included in the abstract. The abstract should also be independ-
ent and self-contained in the sense that readers should be able to understand it with-
out having to read your paper. Finally, you need to be succinct and make every word
count because, in most cases, you will have a strict word limit for the abstract.
Look at the following abstract written by Robyn Gillies (2006) for the British Journal
of Educational Psychology. It’s unusual in the sense that the journal requires authors
to break the abstract into six distinct categories: Background, Aim, Samples, Meth-
ods, Results and Conclusions. While it is unlikely that you would be asked to label
sections of your abstract in such an explicit way, it does provide a clear model of
important elements to include in an abstract.
Example of an abstract in sections
Background. Teachers play a critical role in promoting interactions between
students and engaging them in the learning process. This study builds on a
study by Hertz-Lazarowitz and Shachar (1990) who found that during coopera-
tive learning teachers’ verbal behaviours were more helpful to and encourag-
ing of their students’ efforts while during whole-class instruction, their verbal
behaviours tended to be more authoritarian, rigid, and impersonal.
Aim. This study seeks to determine if teachers who implement cooperative
learning engage in more facilitative learning interactions with their students
than teachers who implement group work only. The study also seeks to deter-
mine if students in the cooperative groups model their teachers’ behaviours and
engage in more positive helping interactions with each other than their peers in
the group work groups.
➨
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5 The research project
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Samples. The study involved 26 teachers and 303 students in Grades 8 to 10
from 4 large high schools in Brisbane, Australia.
Methods. All teachers agreed to establish cooperative, small-group activities in
their classrooms for a unit of work (4 to 6 weeks) once a term for 3 school
terms. The teachers were audiotaped twice during these lessons and samples
of the students’ language, as they worked in their groups, were also collected at
the same time.
Results. The results show that teachers who implement cooperative learning
in their classrooms engage in more mediated-learning interactions and make
fewer disciplinary comments than teachers who implement group work only.
Furthermore, the students model many of these interactions in their groups.
Conclusions. The study shows that when teachers implement cooperative
learning, their verbal behaviour is affected by the organizational structure of
the classroom.
(Gillies, 2006: 271–87)
Analyse the following abstract for a quantitative study written by Heikki Ruismäki
and Tarja Tereska (2008: 23–9). What are the purposes of each of the six sentences
in the abstract? The first one is done for you.
Activity 5.1 Analysing an abstract
This article reports on a retrospective study of Finnish pre-service ele-
mentary school teachers’ assessments of their musical experiences in
nursery school and real-time study of their experiences in teacher train-
ing.The participants (N ⫽ 590) had received musical instruction in five age
groups (4–6 years, 7–12 years, 13–15 years, 16–19 years, 20–25 years). The
assessments were most positive in the 4–6 years groups and thereafter
declined until puberty in the 13–15 years group. A change in a positive
direction was perceived in the 16–19 years group and also in the
20–25 years group (during teacher training). Gender differences were
statistically significant except during upper secondary school. The most
enjoyable activities in formal music education were singing and playing;
music theory was experienced most negatively.
Sentence 1: Tell the purpose of the study.
Sentence 2:
Sentence 3:
Sentence 4:
Sentence 5:
Sentence 6:
Would you consider adding any other information? As a reader, what information
about this study would you like to know that is not included in the abstract?
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Test your keywords and phrases by typing them into an internet search
engine, such as Google, in order to see if the words and phrases work as
expected. We find that this is an extremely useful test, as it will quickly tell you
how well (or poorly) the words and phrases that you are considering actually
result in the kinds of ‘hits’ that you’re hoping for.
Key to writing an abstract is to strive for clarity of presentation. The
abstract should be easily comprehensible. Readers should be able quickly to
determine whether the results of the study are of interest to them or not from the
abstract.
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The abstract
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Keywords
The vast majority of researchers and students find articles online by conducting
keyword searches, many of which involve the use of clusters of keywords (e.g.
‘vocabulary testing’, rather than simply ‘vocabulary’). For this reason, you will want
to consider not only which single words can help readers locate your study, but also
which phrases they are likely to use. Including the ‘right’ key phrases will enhance
the discoverability of your study, which means that other people will be able to
locate your article quickly and easily. In most cases, approximately five key phrases
or between six and eight keywords is appropriate. So exactly which words and
phrases should you include?
First, you might wish to include at least one keyword or phrase describing the disci-
pline that you are working in (e.g. education). Secondly, if you are working in an area
where standard technical vocabulary exists, be sure that your terms are consistent
with that vocabulary because researchers and other students will use the standard
vocabulary to search for articles. Thirdly, if you have used a particular methodology
(e.g. ethnography or longitudinal study) or analytical technique (e.g. structural equa-
tion modelling), you might want to consider adding them to your list.
Let’s look at some examples. In a study entitled ‘Can the Simultaneous Experience
of Opposing Emotions Really Occur?’, Jack Brehm and Anca Miron (2006: 13–29)
selected the following keywords: ambivalence; emotion; mixed feelings; intensity of
emotion; deterrence. Note that with the exception of deterrence, their keywords
have a clear relationship with the title of their paper.
This relationship between keywords and the title of the paper is a natural one given
that the title is the ultimate summary of the entire paper. Indeed, some authors have
considerable overlap between the two. For instance, John Sosik and Sandi Dinger
(2007: 134–53) used three key words and phrases, leadership styles, vision and
personal attributes, in their article entitled ‘Relationships between leadership style
and vision content: the moderating role of need for social approval, self-monitoring
and need for social power’. Notice that the first two keywords are also part of the title.
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